Overall impact of Duke Basketball landing five-star guard Trevor Keels
Duke Blue Devils
The timing worked out really well for the program, as just a couple of days ago, freshman guard DJ Steward announced that he would be entering the NBA Draft. He’s a projected pick in the 25-50 range, so it wasn’t a sure bet that the starting shooting guard would leave. But he’s gone, along with starting point guard Jordan Goldwire and backup forward Jaemyn Brakefield to the transfer portal, as well as freshman Jalen Johnson and likely leading scorer Matthew Hurt to the draft as well.
Assuming Hurt isn’t going to be back, the other two roster decisions that’ll need to be decided are point guard Jeremy Roach and sophomore forward Wendell Moore. But in regards to Keels, he’ll be starting at the shooting guard position thanks to Steward’s departure. He’s the third five-star prospect to join the Blue Devils in the 2021 recruiting class, paired with top-10 combo forward AJ Griffin and top-5 forward/center Paolo Banchero, giving them a top-5 current class overall.
And Duke might not be done. They’re considered a frontrunner to land top-3 overall forward Patrick Baldwin to boost the frontcourt even more. It’s between them and Milwaukee, where his dad currently coaches but expect a decision from him soon.
But no matter how the frontcourt looks, the Blue Devils will need the backcourt to be better than it was this past season to be a Final Four contender, which is what the expectations will be once again with Keels on board.
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They’ll need the talented future freshman shooting guard to shoot well from deep to provide spacing and be a consistent scoring threat all season. If that happens, Duke Basketball won’t have to worry about missing the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year.